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"We may see a shake-up in the mobile market, with at least 18 new Android handsets being released this year. Until that happens, iPhone will remain a market lea

"We may see a shake-up in the mobile market, with at least 18 new Android handsets being released this year. Until that happens, iPhone will remain a market leader and developers will have to put up with XCode and Objective-C." Although the author says this, the fact that 18 new android handsets can be released in a year is one of the problems with both Android and, to some degree, Windows Mobile. The iPhone OS isn't really revolutionary. Even their interface on their home screen is pretty simple, it's just a more rigid desktop metaphor, Apple dock and all. It's the hardware that truly stands out. The hardware features Apple's carefully thought out design and style, along with an incredibly well done multi-touch screen. The awesome hardware accompanying the incredibly polished and functional screen are really the biggest selling points of the iPhone that no one has matched yet. It's the same win that Apple's laptops provide over the multitude of OEMs that produce other computers. But it's obvious that hardware design is more important to consumers than the development platform, thus developers are going to have to cope.

rimantas 17y ago
The number of applications on AppStore shows, that developers cope just fine. Also it is very tough to compare technology and tool you are familiar with to the new ones without any bias.
davidw 17y ago
Apple makes nice things, but market segmentation is good. It means people can choose between the basic 25 Euro Nokia that doesn't do that much, or the 500 Euro model with all the bells and whistles, or a variety of phones in between. My guess is that Apple doesn't really care: they'll eventually end up with some reasonable, but minority stake in the market... more or less like the computer market.
- dflock 17y ago
  I would say that you're correct. Apple's polish and attention to detail only seems to actually matter to a small minority of people - about 5% of the global marketplace, historically. Most (normal) people don't pay sufficient attention to technology to notice the difference and the hefty price premium simply doesn't seem worth it to them. As in life, I would expect the Android ecosystem to out compete the Apple mono-culture in the long run.
  - yankeeracer73 17y ago
    I would have agreed with you a couple months ago, but a $99 iPhone 3G KILLS other $99 offerings of every other manufacturer. Now if Apple sticks with AT&T in the U.S. that's a serious handicap, but if they begin working with other networks, the iPhones should take a lot of market share and be the dominant player eventually.
    - dejb 17y ago
      Do you really think the price is $99? That is like saying the cost of a house is the deposit. The plan is the price.
      - sahaj 17y ago
        while you are correct, the upfront amount is what most people think about when buying most things (not everyone). housing bubble? (we can debate about who is to blame all day, but people simply looked at their monthly payment and down payment when they signed their deeds.)
- andrewmu 17y ago
  This is not what happened in the music player market - in 2007 the iPod commanded over 70% of sales, helped by modest segmentation (flash vs HDD). While the mobile phone market is much larger and a phone is less of a luxury item for many, I expect they could eventually have the majority of the smartphone market.
  - davidw 17y ago
    I think they'd lose some of their cachet if that happened. In any case, I hope they stay in a smallish chunk of the market like the computers - they're nice phones, but I am simply not interested in a hacker-unfriendly platforms, and I'd hate to see it become the major, or only one. Android wins by a mile (or two) from that point of view.
    - Zaak 17y ago
      Indeed. The simple lack of a hardware keyboard means the iPhone isn't really an option for me. If there were no phones available with hardware keyboards I would be very disappointed. In fact, I'm disappointed that there are no upcoming Android phones with decent keyboards, so I won't be getting an upgrade any time soon.

rimantas 17y ago

The number of applications on AppStore shows, that developers cope just fine. Also it is very tough to compare technology and tool you are familiar with to the new ones without any bias.

davidw 17y ago

Apple makes nice things, but market segmentation is good. It means people can choose between the basic 25 Euro Nokia that doesn't do that much, or the 500 Euro model with all the bells and whistles, or a variety of phones in between. My guess is that Apple doesn't really care: they'll eventually end up with some reasonable, but minority stake in the market... more or less like the computer market.

dflock 17y ago
I would say that you're correct. Apple's polish and attention to detail only seems to actually matter to a small minority of people - about 5% of the global marketplace, historically. Most (normal) people don't pay sufficient attention to technology to notice the difference and the hefty price premium simply doesn't seem worth it to them. As in life, I would expect the Android ecosystem to out compete the Apple mono-culture in the long run.
- yankeeracer73 17y ago
  I would have agreed with you a couple months ago, but a $99 iPhone 3G KILLS other $99 offerings of every other manufacturer. Now if Apple sticks with AT&T in the U.S. that's a serious handicap, but if they begin working with other networks, the iPhones should take a lot of market share and be the dominant player eventually.
  - dejb 17y ago
    Do you really think the price is $99? That is like saying the cost of a house is the deposit. The plan is the price.
    - sahaj 17y ago
      while you are correct, the upfront amount is what most people think about when buying most things (not everyone). housing bubble? (we can debate about who is to blame all day, but people simply looked at their monthly payment and down payment when they signed their deeds.)
andrewmu 17y ago
This is not what happened in the music player market - in 2007 the iPod commanded over 70% of sales, helped by modest segmentation (flash vs HDD). While the mobile phone market is much larger and a phone is less of a luxury item for many, I expect they could eventually have the majority of the smartphone market.
- davidw 17y ago
  I think they'd lose some of their cachet if that happened. In any case, I hope they stay in a smallish chunk of the market like the computers - they're nice phones, but I am simply not interested in a hacker-unfriendly platforms, and I'd hate to see it become the major, or only one. Android wins by a mile (or two) from that point of view.
  - Zaak 17y ago
    Indeed. The simple lack of a hardware keyboard means the iPhone isn't really an option for me. If there were no phones available with hardware keyboards I would be very disappointed. In fact, I'm disappointed that there are no upcoming Android phones with decent keyboards, so I won't be getting an upgrade any time soon.